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Changes to the Writer's Lounge Forum.

I have a bit of an announcement to make. If you're not on the Discord, you may not have seen that Stickpage has two new admins: Exile, and myself.
From this point on, we suddenly have a few options available to us to change the Writer's Lounge for the better. With all the things that we can do now that we couldn't do before, I think the entire community should come in and discuss what sort of changes might be for the best, and what direction we want this place to go. There's discussion on canons, for writer improvement and the SP Academy, all that stuff. It seems like people want to have change that may attract more writers or make the wRHG and general writing section a better place to be.

Basically, what are your thoughts? I just want to be extremely careful about making any changes. Tell me what you think fams

First, get 1-2 new Regional Mods to keep an eye on things and function as delegated authority and managed newbies and whatnot. (ATM if Dvor is going to be really active here like it seems I suppose this isn't actually necessary after all).

Secondly, the Vision.

The WL needs to attract new members of all fields, accept new members, cultivate them, involve them, and turn them into senior members.

The way to do this requires several precise adjustments, but focuses on one key point -- Content.

1) Organization. The WL forum is a pitfall of shitty organization, and which makes tons of material get lost with time (an inevitability with forums, but worse here) and can intimidate new members and make them feel as if their work would not be appreciated. The best way to organize will be as follows:>>>Forums for the Scribes Table, wRHG, Olit, and Academy.>Subforums for Scribes Table: The Bulletin Board (General WL rules, news, etc), Events (The official threads for competitions, events, etc), Draftboard (Personal threads for competitions, WIP Olit pieces, etc).>Subforums for wRHG: Universe (rules, guidelines, canon elements, etc), Characters, Clans, Battles, Events (wRHG writings like Secret Santa that function in the wRHG universe but don't take the battle format).>Subforums for OLit: Think Tank (references, interesting articles, recommendations, social writing, etc, as well as the Rules), Series (Threads by single owners for series of posts/stories that go together), Individual Works (Poems, stand-alone short stories, etc).>Subforums for Academy: Lessons (Obivious, only Academy Staff can post here), Discussion Board (anyone can post here. Allows people to ask questions, discuss lessons, etc.), Challenge Tests (the place for active students to write up their tests and receive feedback/CnC/"grades" from Academy Staff)

2) Engagement. >>>We need to have a staff of "rovers" that ensure new members get CnC, interaction, comments, welcomes, advice, etc. These people should have their names listed. They are not mods, but regulars/senior members that are willing and qualified for this roll.

3) Competitions.>>>This is a long-standing hope of mine since joining this site. Get Competitions rolling like we have for the Animation side. Judges are appointed by Admin/local mods. Said mods are automatically judges unless they have chosen to participate.

4) System of member handling.>>>What I mean by this is that whenever we have really, REALLY bad writers come in and try to do stuff, we need a way to help them improve that doesn't chase them off. Unfortunately the idea of CnC is new and offensive to many new members (and some old members :P). Ways to handle this better:>Use the Academy. If someone is doing poorly, reference the appropriate academic lessons. Put them in contact with Academy Staff. That is a way to say "hey, your XYZ fucking sucks" without saying it. Instead, just say "Hey, XYZ was bad. Why don't you check out this lesson here? I think it might help you improve in this area.">Set up a system of "Professional" advisors. Again, the Admin and Mods would automatically be in this, but they could appoint qualified members as well. These would be people who have proven they are good at working with cringe-worthy new members and offering help and advice. Because this is OFFICIALLY their role, it takes off the edge of "I'm giving my superior opinion" and converts it to "Hey, this is my job on this site. How may I help you?" kind of feel.>See Point 2: Engagement. Have Rovers that ensure members get good, quality interaction on this point.>Clear rules. Rules need to be set and be quite clear, and regulation of them needs to be firm. If we start sliding around the measure of what's acceptable and what isn't and making exceptions as always then shit hits the fan and everything falls apart. Rules need to be loose, but there. Again, having established leadership to take this stance is really helpful, as most members can just appeal to the admin/mods/officials and let them do the less enjoyable part of their jobs (getting flamed by angry noobs they regulate).

5) Image.>>>With the former four points in place, the WL needs to actively engage people from other communities. I know Jeff wants to get writing onto Stickpage Site itself, but we need to do our own work. Spread the word of the SP WL as a place not just to do wRHG. That's just one element and a way to keep people actively writing. Rather, we need to present ourselves as a place to come as a new writer, find helpful people and helpful lessons, practice your skill and post your work, get feedback and viewership, compete, have fun, and eventually become a much better writer than you were before.>>>wRHG. This needs to be framed as an involved short-story RP, yes...but there is so much more. A better image is as a way to practice and experiment with writing in a consistent, stable, regulated, and active environment. It is a way to test drive characters, have fun with other writers, toy with different literary tools, etc. That's one of the main emphasis points I want to put here.

First order of business should probably be a new layout forum wise. Right now we've got everything dedicated to wRHG and any other kind of writing is thrown on this big pile underneath. I know I'm kinda rechewing what other folks before me have been yelling for a while but we kinda need our Olit back in a way, shape or form. I don't know what's possible of course, but a few things I feel wouldn't be misplaced are a section for practice so we can throw stuff like the academy in there. Second, perhaps some kind of thread where we can showcase the best writing folks make around this here parts (be it wRHG or not).

As for the rest, these are just ideas, but I feel like we could also be helped by a place for events and discussions and things of that ilk. Olit has to come back too in a way shape or form, but making it one big subsection might be too broad. Perhaps divide stuff amongst genre? I don't know.

Lastly, perhaps also make a subsection for wRHG writing that isn't a battle and such.

Those are just my two cents before I head off to bed. Kinda wanna see what other folks have to say first.

What I really, really, really want to see changed is the Clan section of the lounge. Right now we only have 2 semi-active clans putting out semi-active shit, which is upsetting because I really like some of the clans that have been built and, eventually, died as a whole. So, I thought about it for a while and came up with some possible ideas that could make the wRHG clan section more appealing.

1. Adding a clan ranking system much like the Hall of Warriors so people are encouraged to do more clan vs clan stuff.

2. Add weekly or bi-weekly projects that any clan can do so people don't have to constantly come up with their own shit, thus making it easier for clans to stay active due to their leader's lack of project creation.

I'm having trouble remembering my other points so I'll bring em up later

Yeahhhhh I have no idea, haven't posted in a while.
I would like more clan support/more clan wars as Pitch said. I feel like the others have more to say than I do.
I'm fine with anythin. Gonna have to revive Blade one day as well.

Idk, but it's over the rainbow and beyond the sea, AKA that Narnia place (hah, no, did you think?).

Posts

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I know I haven't been here long, but I can see why people want organization to be the main priority, and I think it should be too. I think all the people before me have said about this topic are things I agree with.

I believe in Jesus Christ as my Savior. If you're not afraid to admit it then paste this into your signature.

Well, the thing with clans/clan battles, is that they're difficult to organize. The only one that happened here was basically a 1v1 using the whole mass of characters. Actually organizing a half dozen people to write a single thing across multiple time zones is a struggle. Not really the system's fault, but with events, that's clan to clan. Back in the day, Freeborn had a 100 theme challenge. 1 theme per member per month, and we chipped away at them. Clan events depend on the clan, sure there can be guidelines, but those are kinda the selling point.

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As far as organization goes, O Lit does come off as secondarily. A part of me wouldn't mind seeing wRHG completely separate from it in it's own area, like with RHG, but with teaching, it feels odd to separate. Maybe if it was:

OLit
wRHG
Sandbox & Academy

Without all of the wRHG sections overpowering the number it would seem more balanced. Lit could be broken between shorts, series and pre-split, unless someone wants to go through that whole beast.

Academy could be things like the academy, Friday Funks, the Proving Grounds, or experimental stories. Maybe games?
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With RHG, I would like to see a branch for the gladiator tales. They don't really have a defined space and kinda go wherever, but at the moment, I don't know if there are enough events to really warrant it's own section. Other than mine, there aren't many. Maybe it would encourage more, but empty sections may not have that appeal, or if 80% of the treads have my name, it might look like something only I do.
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With feedback, the thing that worries me is if we identify people who have to CnC, others may be discouraged from it, feeling they aren't good enough to do it. There should definitely be a crew of No No Comments, but not everything needs to be a critique. People just need to know what they write gets read. Doesn't have to be a new color, just maybe a sign-up board
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About things dying:

It's better for a project to end then just suddenly stop, otherwise it builds the impression that things don't get done. This includes things like events and "rovers". Let's be honest, people come and go in waves. Month at a time signups I can see, otherwise there'll be a ghost time. For example, Mastertop (the temporary move from FA before SP booted the writing stuff here) had Advicers. Of like, 4, maybe one, or if we were lucky, two, were active at a time.

All in all, I'm fine with change. I'm fine with lots of change, but it'll need to be more like a ball of clay than one and done. If things become things they need a home, but if something's a one off nothing happens too... We don't need the clutter of a dozen sections. Things need dates, so there can be less a sense that things just stop, and while yes, there should be more CnC, it shouldn't be from "special" people.

EDIT:

I forgot, the number of stickied threads in wRHG seems... excessive. I wouldn't mind some condensing to happen. Rules, Regulations & Recommendations could all be one thing, for example

What really happened is that Jeff removed the Newbies usergroup since it was making newbies unable to post in a thread outside of their own (which was a bit of a problem for trying to reach 10 posts to be able to post links). With that happening, it seems to have fucked with regular user permissions in a way that isn't on the normal Admin control panel since it's done by a 3rd party program/mod. I don't think I can fix it and Jeff will have to do it.